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A study in sixteenth-century performance and artistic networks: British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233

A study in sixteenth-century performance and artistic networks: British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233
A study in sixteenth-century performance and artistic networks: British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233
This thesis is a modern spelling edition of unedited poems and song lyrics from British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233, and a cultural and sociological study of the collection.

The manuscript contains music, poetry and fragments of drama attributed to John Redford, Organist, Almoner and Master of the Choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral c.1534–1547, as well as work by at least six other mid Tudor poets. The manuscript has systematically been cited as a ‘St. Paul’s miscellany’(because the main body of work within it is attributed to Redford), and despite its varied content, has been considered almost solely from the perspective of Early Modern drama. This thesis considers the manuscript anew: as a whole, rather than in parts divided along disciplinary lines, as an example of material culture, and separately from the well-researched centres of St. Paul’s and John Redford.

Chapters one and two comprise a study of the physical makeup of the manuscript, demonstrating new evidence for its date, and suggesting that it is the product of an artistic network centred on the London parish church of St. Mary-at-Hill.

Chapters three and four comprise new studies of the content of the manuscript. Chapter three examines The Play of Wit and Science, with particular attention to its bibliographical status, and its engagement with contemporary artistic debate in performance. It also demonstrates its importance as a source for two later sixteenth-century plays. Chapter four is a case study of a single poem from the manuscript. This demonstrates the overall significance of MS 15233 as a source for verse and song, uncovers a network of printers involved in the transmission of its contents, and calls into question the long-standing theory that the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne was a contributor to the manuscript.

The final chapter of the thesis comprises a modern spelling edition of the poems and song lyrics from MS 15233 with individual commentaries and textual apparatus. This thesis demonstrates that to examine MS 15233 purely in relation to St. Paul’s Cathedral and John Redford, and from any one perspective, is reductive, and that these approaches have caused evidence to be skewed, and scholars to miss more complex possibilities regarding its compilation and provenance.
Rayment, Louise Ellen Elma
36d7ea6d-8a0b-405f-9579-9c2830edd909
Rayment, Louise Ellen Elma
36d7ea6d-8a0b-405f-9579-9c2830edd909
King, Ros
7b27456c-0da8-432b-a82f-ee19af23d4fb

Rayment, Louise Ellen Elma (2011) A study in sixteenth-century performance and artistic networks: British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233. University of Southampton, School of Engish, Doctoral Thesis, 503pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This thesis is a modern spelling edition of unedited poems and song lyrics from British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233, and a cultural and sociological study of the collection.

The manuscript contains music, poetry and fragments of drama attributed to John Redford, Organist, Almoner and Master of the Choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral c.1534–1547, as well as work by at least six other mid Tudor poets. The manuscript has systematically been cited as a ‘St. Paul’s miscellany’(because the main body of work within it is attributed to Redford), and despite its varied content, has been considered almost solely from the perspective of Early Modern drama. This thesis considers the manuscript anew: as a whole, rather than in parts divided along disciplinary lines, as an example of material culture, and separately from the well-researched centres of St. Paul’s and John Redford.

Chapters one and two comprise a study of the physical makeup of the manuscript, demonstrating new evidence for its date, and suggesting that it is the product of an artistic network centred on the London parish church of St. Mary-at-Hill.

Chapters three and four comprise new studies of the content of the manuscript. Chapter three examines The Play of Wit and Science, with particular attention to its bibliographical status, and its engagement with contemporary artistic debate in performance. It also demonstrates its importance as a source for two later sixteenth-century plays. Chapter four is a case study of a single poem from the manuscript. This demonstrates the overall significance of MS 15233 as a source for verse and song, uncovers a network of printers involved in the transmission of its contents, and calls into question the long-standing theory that the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne was a contributor to the manuscript.

The final chapter of the thesis comprises a modern spelling edition of the poems and song lyrics from MS 15233 with individual commentaries and textual apparatus. This thesis demonstrates that to examine MS 15233 purely in relation to St. Paul’s Cathedral and John Redford, and from any one perspective, is reductive, and that these approaches have caused evidence to be skewed, and scholars to miss more complex possibilities regarding its compilation and provenance.

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More information

Published date: January 2011
Organisations: University of Southampton, English

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 344773
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/344773
PURE UUID: e34ae8e7-2540-4ad3-a15d-b130d835ff48

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Date deposited: 31 Oct 2012 10:06
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 12:18

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Contributors

Author: Louise Ellen Elma Rayment
Thesis advisor: Ros King

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